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Whilst content marketing is sometimes regarded as a single discipline on its own, it stands to reason that SEO activities play an integral role in content marketing activities as well.

Although the move to authentic content has become a necessary tactic in content marketing, organic search benefits can be enhanced with the help of properly strategized SEO techniques.

So aside from proper long-term planning of integrated SEO and content marketing campaigns that provide the framework for consistent content creation, these are some other ways that your content marketing endeavours can be aligned with SEO best practices:

1. The quality of your content still needs to outweigh the quantity of what you produce

Content needs to remain compelling in order to spark conversation amongst your target audience. This means that your media mix needs to be a blend of useful, informative and likeable content, and something that retains emotive value that will entice the end user audience to become engaged with your brand.

SEO activities, whilst essential in supporting content marketing actions, need to fit into your overall content marketing strategy seamlessly and in a way that is meaningful to your brand and your audience.

SEO techniques need to complement your content plan in a way that will get your brand’s message across so as to appeal to your particular audience and to meet your business objectives through converting consumer behaviour into consumer action.

2. Understanding SEO keyword strategy

Although for some, SEO remains a poorly used strategy in creating valuable content, I believe that smart keyword research provides a very good indication of what type of information people are looking for on search engines.

Identifying what questions people are asking online, what problems they’re trying to solve, what topics they’re interested in; this is all critical information that plays a fundamental role in content creation.

The reasons why are pretty simple:

You learn a lot about who your audience is allowing you to specifically target the segment relevant to your objectives.
You discover what it is exactly that people are searching for online.
You gain a better perspective of what will make for good content.
Keyword research, as part of SEO planning and analysis, does require patience and persistence; because it does take some time.

There are however various tools out there that can help make the process easier, which include:

Google Keyword Planner where you can search for keyword and ad group ideas, get historical statistics, see how a list of keywords might perform, and even create a new keyword list by multiplying several lists of keywords together.

MozBar to access important SEO metrics, create custom searches by search engine, country or city, and see how difficult it is to rank for a given keyword.

SEMrush to identify keywords that appear to be widely used in your niche or to establish related keywords, phrases and terms you might consider building into your content and linkbuilding strategies.

3. Identify how you will be distributing your content

SEO is not only about what you’re putting into your content. It’s also about how that content will be seen or heard.

The way in which you distribute your content is a very crucial component of SEO activities in that having your content reach its intended audiences is heavily influenced by ranking in search results.

This means that you need to optimise every distribution channel in such a way so that your content is delivered effectively, which includes:

Using social media channels to connect with your target audience. Listen to what they’re saying and then get them engaged through epic content.

Integrating a keyword strategy into your content in a manner that will allow authenticity to be retained. Generic low-quality content simply doesn’t work anymore, especially so in search engine ranking.

Growing your authority in your field by guest blogging on related websites or through connecting with other influencers.

Expanding your social media reach through social sharing buttons making it easier for your audience to share your content with others.

Creating an SEO friendly resource centre that is keyword optimised and easy to share on social media platforms.

4. Analyse and understand the metrics you will use to measure KPIs

You can only know how your key integrated SEO and content marketing activities are performing through the analysis of various metrics.

These KPIs are important in that they are directly connected to your business’ goals.

Here are some examples of the KPIs that are worth tracking:

Page views and average time on website or particular page so as to quantify to what extent your content is keeping users engaged.

Organic search traffic to evidence the value of the keywords your content is optimised for.

Impression data in order to determine whether there are keywords that you are appearing in search results for that you didn’t even know.

Lead generation and conversion rates so as to determine whether you are meeting your business’ primary business / sales objectives

Social sharing and referring traffic so as understand which social media channels or networks are generating the most activity.

What’s important to realise is that one needs to regard great content as a sum of many parts. If you can ensure that that those parts result in content that remains consistently relevant, interesting, useful and engaging, and that it incorporates strategic SEO tactics continuously, you stand far more of a chance of making that content stand out in search results.

Base Element is a digital agency that excels in providing real value to clients by including their SEO and content marketing activities in a holistic Digital strategy that serves their strategic objectives.

Moreover, we take care of the SEO and Content marketing implementation so that our clients can avoid the complexity and the hustle that come with it.

If you want to find out more about the Digital marketing services we can offer, contact us today.